dullahan

A black-clad (usually male) horserider in Irish folklore which carries its severed head like a lantern and may be repelled by gold; when it stops riding (or calls out someone's name), someone will die. (Also called the Gan Ceann, Irish for

The dullahans always came in a mist. But Devin wasn't afraid of dullahans. If he saw one, he would club it over the head. But then Devin remembered that dullahans didn't have heads. He grasped his stick a little tighter in his hand, […]

“A dullahan,” both Phelan and Coriel whispered. Coriel looked her square in the eye, “You did remember the gold, right?” ML blushed, “No, I didn't. I was so scared I just started running.” “Then how did you escape?” “My pocket tore on a bush. […] “You're lucky you're not dead anyway. The dullahan could have stopped or spoken your name, or both.”

Alternative letter-case form of dullahan.

“With the Bodach defeated, no one thought to protect Gwen. A Dullahan discovered her and used the necklace to control her. Through her, it learned everything about Arthur's defenses.”

It was never fully clear to Irving whether the Dullahan and the Gan Ceann were the same entity [...]. Most feared of all the Unseelie, the Dullahan is a bringer of dismay and death. The Dullahan is a headless rider, clad in a flowing black cape and usually mounted upon a black horse that spews flames from its nostrils […] The Dullahan carries its rotting head aloft in one hand like a lantern, the better to see immense distances, while it holds a whip made from a human spinal cord in the other.

A surname from Irish.